Windsor Winners

Ben Maher produced a faultless performance to win Friday’s feature class, the Bahrain Pearl Stakes with his Olympic ride, Tic Tac. Last to go in a jump off of seven horses, Ben managed to shave a few tenths off the already incredibly quick time set by Eric Lamaze and Fine Lady 5.

Ben followed up with a very near second with Don Vito in Saturday’s Kingdom of Bahrain feature class. Resisting the temptation to rush to the last fence, Ben finished just 0.63s behind Belgium based, Egyption rider, Abdel Saïd.

John Whitaker narrowly missed out on a jump off spot with Talisman De Mazure, coming home just 0.02 of a second outside of the allowed time!

Setting the pace on the other side of the Windsor grounds was FEI World Four in Hand Champion, Boyd Exell. He took home his eighth Royal Windsor Land Rover International Driving Grand Prix title, despite starting with an inexperienced team that included 6yr old Alonso who was competing for the first time. A near perfect dressage round, followed by a slow and steady approach through the cross country and the cones, kept Boyd out in front, his pupil, Edouard Simonet finishing in second.

Meanwhile, Jo Bates had a much more sedate but equally successful show. The beautiful reigning Hack of the Year, Elusive, was crowned Champion Hack. Despite this being his first outdoor show of the year, Elusive showed his impeccable manners in the championship, prompting judges Gregory Goss and Sara Parrot to place him above the original class winner, Forgeland Hydepark (Jane Ross).

And for a change we also got to see Jo on the ‘hairy mary’, Cashelby Rocket. The handsome Connemara stood victor of the BSPS Heritage Connemara & New Forrest class for owner and breeder, Robbie Fallon.

Phew… until next year!!

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